Welcome to Louis (Lou) Dawson's backcountry skiing information & opinion website. Lou's passion for the past 50 years has been alpinism, climbing, mountaineering and skiing -- along with all manner of outdoor recreation. He has authored numerous books and articles about
ski touring and is well known as the first person to ski down all 54 of Colorado's 14,000-foot peaks, otherwise known as the
Fourteeners! Books and free ski touring news and information here.
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Tiny in the pack. I have no problem packing them as a ‘just in case’ on spring tours. The first gen were rather ‘Frankenstein’ Somehow I broke a tooth, but Pro-Ski replaced the set quickly and I haven’t had a problem. TLT 6.
What they need to make is a titanium version. That would be incredible. Lou
They work on my TLT6, F1s, and my wife’s Arc’teryx Procline ARs. Handy.
Recently, I am finding the Hoji Pro Tour very difficult to fit tightly with light, Al crampons for summer.
Tried Petzl, Camp, and Kreuesptize.
Due to its bull nose toe, most strap on models leave too much wiggle room for my taste. I am not interested in cutting away the sole for the Cramp In.
I would prefer a full length, but may have to reconsider these Tech Crampons.
Thanks for the timely post.
@Scott
I bet you could rig up something like a petzl Irvis heel piece to the Techpon toe. Just tie off the dyneema chords to the holes in the techpon toe. Adjustment might be a little fiddly in the beginning though
I did mean the Irvis hybrid or the Leopard
attaching the Petzl heel pieces to the techpon toe would be pretty cool, neat idea! I also wonder if you could jury-rig something similar with another aluminium crampon heel, some dynema cord, and the techpon toe. Might have to try that.
I’ve been using this exact set up for 1.5 seasons and it works really well. If the tech crampons are enough for you, they are great. The also work well on the new Hoji Free of course.
Cheers Lou, definitely going to get some of these 🙂
Thanks,
Frank V.
Is the slot in the tightening bolt/screw up front wide enough for a ice axe (front tip or sharp adze)? One can assume that an axe will be at hand on tours were crampons or Techpons might be used? I hope that you’re only happy to see me, and that you’re not carrying an extra flathead screwdriver in your pocket?
Hi Furreti, the safety clip on the leash fits the screw slot perfectly, a sharp ice axe tip would fit it as well, it’s pretty wide. The backside of a knife blade would work also, it doesn’t require a lot of torque. Lou
I find a significant portion of the time I am cramponing on harder snow while ski touring I am using some flat foot technique. Do folks find these limit the range of techniques? Or as a backup just in case good enough? Or are people only kick stepping/front pointing?
In response to Aaron, I tried the tech crampons. Cool idea and there was nothing wrong with the product, but they didn’t work for me.
I do a lot of French technique when climbing snow slopes, saves my calves. I typically only do sustained front pointing if it’s soft enough to get a decent step or no other option (steep and firm).
I didn’t like how they French-stepped so I sold them. Petzl Leopard isn’t much heavier or bulkier and works better for me. Leopards have gotten me up anything I can ski down.
YMMV of course.
It is nonsense. Crampons must be at least 10-pick. Otherwise they might cause serious problems even lethal especially on descent.
It is unusable boot for ski-mountaineering if you cant attach regular climbing crampons.
Is it normal to have specific boots for climbing (and skiing on descent), then other for touring, then some other for I dont know what?
Sick dynafit…
I talked about this a bit in my original review. I still have normal crampons, and use them occasionally, but I also often use the techpons. The main instance where I don’t use them is when I’m planning on using crampons for a significant vertical e.g. on a Rainier climb, where you’ll likely spend more than 5,000 feet cramponing. Most of the time, however, the cramponing part of the day is reasonably short (a few thousand feet at most), so they work great.
I’m not sure I would have the techpons as my only crampon, but I’d imagine that many people buying “shark nose” boots have a pair of strap on crampons too that they could use on the few occasions where a techpon won’t work.
I wonder if the crampons cause wear or other damage to the tech sockets that could impair proper binding function. Seems like kicking into hard snow would put a lot more stress on the fittings than normal skiing/skinning.
Snow crampons typically have relatively short spikes. These are highly specialized long front spikes meaning that any unexpected event forcing you to rapidly traverse, run, down climb, etc. puts you potentially at great risk.
For only a few grams more, you can have a complete crampon with predictable footing for all situations.
And the compaction and balling up of huge heavy wet snow clumps underfoot is incredibly annoying and requires tons of effort constantly clearing that snow with almost every step. So again it seems more than worth carrying a few more grams still to have anti bot plates installed.
I am talking proper climbing crampons Louis, with wired toe. I have bad experience with plastic toe crampons using with skiboots for ice climbing.
I think this boot is good just for skiing, even kicking into harder snow is less efficient due
I finally got my hands on these at Martin’s shop in North Bend. On paper they’re clever. In the hand I was surprised by the weight. They’re burly and not that light for what they offer. I have to agree with others that the Petzl Irvis is nearly the same weight (or lighter) and offers more versatility for climbing, Frenching and descending. I think a titanium option might make them more attractive for pure couloir hunting in the spring where a sketchy top out would be more relaxed with the increased security front points provide. I think all of us have found ourselves suddenly on firm snow sprinting to the top with nary more than a few millimeters of boot toe penetration. Sketchy, for sure. I generally make it a habit to have spikes on most times I’m booting for just such an occasion. All that said, I love the innovative spirit.